24) A Large Family

One Friday we were given a very large order to deliver, it almost filled our little car. Off we went to Greenpoint, a suburb we did not know very well at the time. We found the house, it was small and looked like a “housing commission” (council house) there were two young children playing in the garden and when they saw us they got so excited. Running into the house to calling “Mommy, Mommy the groceries are here”. We thought that maybe they were hungry; they were so pleased to see us. In response to their delighted cries their mother came out of the house to greet us, and other kids arrived from everywhere. They all seemed so pleased to see us and wanted to help us with the unloading. They started taking packets from the car and we had to stop them as they were just grabbing any packets, some of which belonged to another delivery we had on board. While I stood at the back of the car making sure that they only took groceries that their mother had paid for Jonny tried to make sure that all the parcels were going into the house.

The customer introduced herself as Cassandra and told us she had four children, but there were far more than four children there. All the kids in the neighbourhood seemed to have arrived to join in the fun. I suspect that Cassandra was a generous woman who shared what she had with the children around her so they were also pleased when her groceries arrived. When we first started delivering to Cassandra we were concerned that the neighbours children might in all the hustle and bustle take one of the packets to his own house but this never happened.

Cassandra only shopped once a fortnight and with her large family you can imagine how large her order was but as there were so many willing hands it was soon in the house. Then we had to count the packets and make sure that it was all accounted for. There would sometimes be as many as 30 packets and as they would not all fit in the small kitchen they would spill out into the dinning room too. Sometimes one of the children would leave one in the lounge or in a bedroom so that counting them was a hard job. Also the kids were always excited to see what treats Mum had bought for them and would start unpacking before the count was completed. There were times when we ended up counting the empty plastic packets to get a final tally. We would try and deliver the order before the school children came home, it did mean less willing hands to help us but at least it was much easier to count the order.

Cassandra was a Christian and always said that her faith was what helped her cope with her problems. Her husband was unemployed so I suppose money was a little tight but it did not stop her from being a generous and positive person. She was looking for work and eventually got a part time job as an assistant in a home for the elderly. How she managed to run her home look after her children and work I will never know but she was always cheerful, friendly and generous. One of our favourite customers.